Eight years on ...........revisiting that educational campus on Wilmslow Road

Now, when you write and research the past it is easy to overlook the more recent history of things.

To be fair I had drilled into me at school that history is all about taking the long view, and objectivity and making historical judgements can only come after a “decent” amount of time has elapsed.

All of which explains why my ‘O’ level and ‘A’ level history exams finished in 1939, almost thirty years before I started studying the subject.

But of course, that can often mean lots of stuff gets overlooked or not reported.

And that led to the “Peter Topping challenge” which he laid down this week and involved taking one of his paintings of a recent building and exploring the changes that it has undergone in just the last couple of decades.

As he reasoned places are constantly undergoing change and it is easy to forget what went before.  

Even more so when parts of south Manchester attract new people who are curious to know the story behind the conversion of a former public building into apartments or just why some bars, shops, and restaurants are special place for locals.

Today’s challenge was to look at the Pump House which today is part of a residential complex on Wilmslow Road.

Already there will be people who do not know that this was originally a private residence built in the 18th century which became a private school and then the Wesleyan College, before becoming a teacher’s training college.

I have written about it over the years and remember my own year there as a graduate studying for a Certificate of Education in 1972.*

Not that I am revisiting its old history, but rather concentrating on the last eight years which saw the college move out of Didsbury to what was then called Birley Fields, and a visit I made with Peter to the former campus back in 2015.

For some staff the move was a wrench for others an exciting challenge in a purpose built “state of the art” centre for training potential teachers.

Added to which some residents waved a gleeful goodbye citing parking problems and too many students, while others saw a loss in revenue to local businesses generated by a group of young people who in those days did have disposable incomes.

I was at the Didsbury College for its “Big Didsbury Picnic" on a warm June day in 2014 which was a prelude to "the official MMU farewell to Didsbury” and was rather an informal event to “celebrate the end of an era”

A year later Peter and I were invited back as the demolition of the 1960s buildings were in full swing and we were allowed to wander through the former admin building and the library which had been the Methodist chapel.**

It was truly a little like the Marie Celeste with discarded books, furniture, electrical equipment and brochures which I guess were deemed unworthy to make the move to Birley.

To which can be added the election appeals for the last student elections in Didsbury, and some now forgotten artwork.

Painting, the Pump House, 2022, © Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures

Pictures; the bits that were left behind, 2015, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and the last pictures of the Admin block, courtesy of Pierre Grace, 2014.

*Didsbury College of Education, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Didsbury%20College%20of%20Education

**Didsbury College ............. eight months on and the strange tale of what was left, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/02/didsbury-college-eight-months-on-and.html